The materials sector was up 2.3 percent, helped by a rally in gold prices and a surge in units of Fording Canadian Coal Trust FDG_u.TO after it said it was looking at its options, including the sale of the company.

Fording was the biggest net advancer by weight, up C$4.50, or 13.1 percent, to C$38.95. Elsewhere in the sector, Teck Cominco TCKb.TO, which has a nearly 20 percent stake in Fording, rose C$1.50, or 4.1 percent, to C$38.00.

The energy sector was up 1.5 percent while the price of oil climbed $3.10 to $90.59 a barrel on supply concerns and weakness in the U.S. dollar.

The S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE was up 94.48 points, or 0.69 percent, at 13,829.02 by late afternoon, with all but one of the TSX’s 10 main groups in positive territory.

Stocks also got some support as U.S. President George W. Bush outlined a plan to freeze interest-rate increases on adjustable-rate subprime mortgages for five years.

But financials remained the lone sector on the downside, as shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO) tumbled after the bank said its hedged exposure to the subprime market could result in significant losses.

CIBC fell C$5.99, or 6.9 percent, to C$81.10, while Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) was down 47 Canadian cents, or 0.9 percent, at C$52.68. The sector was down 1 percent.

$1=$1.01 Canadian
Reporting by Leah Schnurr and Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Rob
Wilson